August 27, 2017

"He supposedly rolled around on a huge pile of gold coins, and he engaged in conversations with the moon, which he would invite into his bed. He replaced the heads of some statues of gods with his own head, and he occasionally appeared in public dressed as a god. He was referred to as a god in certain circumstances, and he set up a temple where he could be worshiped."

I have several anti-Trump friends who, in the early primaries mockingly advised that Trump was a joke, and was going nowhere.

After Trump started winning primaries, my anti-Trump Frieda frantically warned that nominating Trump would be a "disaster" that would split the GOP and guarantee Hillary's ascent to the throne.

After Trump won, these same friends frantically warned that President Trump was a "disaster" who was splitting the country in 2 and would guarantee some liberal's ascent to the throne in 2020, if he wasn't impeached before.

I dunno -I'm getting the impression that my anti-Trump friends tend to make predictions that don't come to pass.

Trump is a Nazi will work on some people, Trump is Caligula will work on others. Why limit the attacks to a consistent theme? The mark of exceptional ideologues is to concurrently hold contradictory beliefs.

Dude, the Godhood thing was not limited to Caligula. All the Roman Emperors did this, and if you didn't worship them as Divus, well, it was the lions for you. Hence the fate of a lot of early Christians.

President Obama - " .... this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal ..."

Valerie Jarrett - “I think Barack knew that he had God-given talents that were extraordinary. He knows exactly how smart he is. … He knows how perceptive he is. He knows what a good reader of people he is. And he knows that he has the ability — the extraordinary, uncanny ability — to take a thousand different perspectives, digest them and make sense out of them, and I think that he has never really been challenged intellectually .... "

Whose apartment in New York looks like it came out of the Palace at Versailles? Gilded thrones for chairs. Gold, gold, gold everywhere you look, portraits of himself in gilded frames. He says the White House is a " dump", it just needs more gilded thrones!

Obama: "I think that I’m a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that I’m gonna think I’m a better political director than my political director.”

Self-awareness is not the long suit of the NYT (or nearly all other MSM). MSM hatred of Trump is personal, and visceral so they say ridiculous things like Kristof did.

Modern politics demands dangerously ambitious and self-absorbed people like Obama and Trump. We have become too good at the dark arts of politics. Normal people would never put themselves and, more importantly, their families, through the media meat grinder.

I have a little black rescue dog who loves to chase a feather lure on a string at the end of a pole. She can and will run round and round after it (occasionally catching and biting it) for as long as I'm willing. Trump is like that--he tosses something out and the press chases its tail endlessly, and breathlessly pursuing the little feathered or shiny object. Every once in a while, the press will actually catch it (the lure) and bite it.

Now when I'm playing with my dog, I finally end the play, say "that's all" and put the lure up.

Trump hasn't figured out how to tell the baying pack of press hounds "that's all". So he keeps on tossing the lure, and they keep on chasing it.

I have a little black rescue dog who loves to chase a feather lure on a string at the end of a pole. She can and will run round and round after it (occasionally catching and biting it) for as long as I'm willing. Trump is like that--he tosses something out and the press chases its tail endlessly, and breathlessly pursuing the little feathered or shiny object. Every once in a while, the press will actually catch it (the lure) and bite it.

Now when I'm playing with my dog, I finally end the play, say "that's all" and put the lure up.

Trump hasn't figured out how to tell the baying pack of press hounds "that's all". So he keeps on tossing the lure, and they keep on chasing it.

The MSM (NYT, Washington Post, LA Times, etc and the networks excluding Fox) are the Democratic Party's Praetorian Guard. They want to install a Didius Julianus and Hillary was that person....till the public caught a whiff of the arrogance.

As long as the Left and their allies insult the voters (and shame them for wrongthink), supporting the Republicans is the rebellious act.

The idea seems to be to recycle all world history into an attack on Donald Trump - He is a slave owner, he is a Confederate, He is a KKK, he is a Hitler, He is a KGB, He is a Nixon, He is a man; he is a heterosexual, he is an American, he is a corrupt Roman Emperor. If it was The Bad it is the Donald. And his opposition is The Good. So that's nice and simple.

Plus we can see what is coming. There aren't many safe-bad cartoons left. Safe-bad cartoons do not apply directly to any minority group or any designated victims. We now have to go into history to get fresh safe-bads for clickbait. Roman Emperor was good. But what about Neanderthal, British Colonialist, slave trader?

Meanwhile, Flyover into Beyond Memeland

Trump's policies and those of Governor Walker brought Foxconn to Wisconsin. It is the policy of the Wisconsin Democrats to oppose Foxconn, to oppose 22,000 good jobs in the facility of a global manufacturing leader who could show Americans how to win in the global market as the same time as the company trains and pays 22,000 American workers. The Democrats don't want this, they don't want jobs for American workers and they don't want to know how Democratic party policies destroy the possibility of Americans competing globally. So they throw out memes in place of developing policies to enable America to compete globally from inside the USA. Because Democrats think American workers can live on imaginary memes as if workers were twinkle, twinkle media stars. Even Mitch McConnell is not as bad as that.

"- Any Republican president would be facing much the same backlash. They just might not feed into/fight it as much as Trump is doing."

Very true. Remember, for four years Hillary's election was presented as a certainty. When their reality gets rocked that hard it isn't surprising that people lash out hysterically. The fact that it was Trump (and no one is more gobsmacked by this than myself) just amps the hysterics.

No. Some Leftists are just naive or stupid, but some are downright evil. The leftist elites who promote open borders and globalism and gin up these dumb controversies about things like Confederate statues are evil. Their ultimate goal is the destruction of the West and Western values. Their laptop followers are simpletons.

I notice that Kristof is careful to be vague and soothing about the fact that Caligula was murdered by his Praetorian Guard (as Kristof says, "a path I would never condone").

But the entire article leading up to the bit on the death of Caligula is self-serving claptrap of the variety of [b]Hitler loved dogs, so if George W. loves dogs, he must be like Hitler.[/b]

Considering the lapses of logic, errors in fact, and overall silliness of the rest of the article, I conclude that this is just more stupid Kristof/Times propaganda against Trump--except for Kristof's taking care to say that he would "never condone" that particular final path....

That brief aside makes the whole article creepy, as noted even by some of the Times readers whose remarks appear in the comments, and who say, in effect, Gee, if I were Trump I'd stay away from Kristof, and certainly from Kristof if he ever visits Capitol Hill.

Does anyone have more ego than sculptors? Given that Pablo Picasso was an avowed supporter of Communism (which killed 4x more people than the Nazis, but is otherwise difficult in its essentials to distinguish from Nazism, both being subsequent steps beyond Progressivism, and both being variants of what might be termed post industrial revolution mass produced slavery), and thus gave support and must share responsibility for those deaths, do we now have cultural and political permission, or indeed obligation, to take a can of spray paint to our local museum’s proud Picasso collection?

The leftist elites who promote open borders and globalism and gin up these dumb controversies about things like Confederate statues are evil. Their ultimate goal is the destruction of the West and Western values. Their laptop followers are simpletons.

"Hi! My name is (Trump Apologist #X5991sxxxse etc.) and I think it's swell if Trump waives the silly and strict VISA entry requirements for the benefit of his own personal clean-up crew at Mar-A-Lago. And that is because I am a blind ideologue who doesn't actually believe what I say and therefore don't mind if Trump doesn't either. Plus I am a follower and all glory must be given to our king. All privilege and anything he wants shall be forked over. Lowering his own taxes is the most glorious goal for our president.

I once hired a Jamaican lady to do a needlepoint portrait of Obama following a pattern that I bought. She didn't like the dark complexion, so she lightened it a couple of shades without telling me by changing to a thread of her own that was not in the kit. I was upset, but didn't tell her. I decided that she was prejudiced against dark complected people even though she wasn't so light-skinned herself.

RealAmerican said...Remember when Trump inserted himself into the White House website biographies of all of the previous presidents? Oh, right. That was the previous occupant of the office.

Or when he "honored" others with images of himself? He honored Rosa Parks, for example, with a picture of himself sitting on an empty bus and Neil Armstrong with a picture of himself gazing at the moon. He was quite a guy.

As compared to Obama, who bent America over and invited the world to fuck us in the ass.

Oh, I get it! You're talking metaphorically!

Cool.

Don't worry. When it comes to learning the difference between metaphorical vs. real assaults and gropings from politicians, as well as entry sites, I'll make sure to consult my expert friend on the matter: exiledonmainstreet.

This 'Trump as Caligula' won't work with the Left. They dumped Western Civilization and Classics studies years ago. Won't find Caligula mentioned in Critical Thinking curricula. None of them know who Caligula was. They'll need to get back to 'Trump as Hitler' very quickly. "Caligula? That's that hormone-free detergent, isn't it?"

Three of our last four presidents have been narcissistic assholes. It amazes me sometimes how the Left criticizes and psychoanalyzes Trump. Did they not live through the Clinton and Obama presidencies? Trump is a less polished liar and the MSM despises him, but other than that he and those two are of the same blood.

Whatever his faults, George W. Bush was at least an honest, decent man. Humble, even. My criticisms of his personal style are that he's a little too "big-hearted" for a conservative, he's too loyal to his guys, he's naively trusting sometimes ... if he could've just been a little tougher and a little more ruthless, he would've been a much better president. But I'd take his flaws in a heartbeat.

I really wish we had more like him in politics. As much as I dislike dynastic politics, I think his peculiar advantages as the son of POTUS enabled him to achieve success in politics despite not having a personality disorder. I'm not sure a good person without those advantages could ever be elected President.

"I once hired a Jamaican lady to do a needlepoint portrait of Obama following a pattern that I bought."

Oh Christ! That's choice, Trumpit! Life size, or larger?

"She didn't like the dark complexion, so she lightened it a couple of shades without telling me by changing to a thread of her own that was not in the kit. I was upset, but didn't tell her. I decided that she was prejudiced against dark complected people even though she wasn't so light-skinned herself."

Turmpit, who are you to judge the life experiences of a POC? Especially one identifying as female! Take him away for regrooving!

In the March 2016 edition of a journal called Middle East North Africa Newspaper comes "Caligula Trumps the GOP, which is considerably more prescient than the NYT article.

For students of Roman history, the name Caligula dredges up images of the ultimate spoiled tyrant. He ruled Rome for three years, starting in A.D. 37. Like Nero, he delighted in causing destruction, even to his own people. Soon after coming to office he decided he was a god and started to dress like one. He even wanted a statue of his godness erected in Jerusalem’s Temple.

He is known for being the ultimate royal gigolo, sleeping with married women and bragging about it. It is even said that he once attended the famous games where criminals were thrown to the lions, got bored, and had his guards throw an entire part of the crowd into the ring. Now that Super Tuesday is behind us, with Donald Trump paving the yellow brick road to win the GOP nomination, it seems that the emperor Caligula has returned in the 21st century.

Trump is the kind of publicity-craving surreal estate mogul who has always believed himself to be godlike. I am not sure if Israel’s Netanyahu would agree to put up a statue of him in Jerusalem, although both might be pleased to sponsor rebuilding of Solomon’s Temple after bulldozing away the current Muslim shrines. I have no idea how many women Trump has slept with, apart from his three wives, but I suspect it is more than zero. And he does seem to be the kind of person who gets easily bored. If the Wall between the U.S. and Mexico does not keep out all the Mexicans, perhaps he can order them taken to the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans and have them thrown to the lions.

It must have been rough for serious Roman citizens at the height of the empire to realize they were being ruled by lunatics. It was after all the mightiest empire on earth at the time with several centuries yet to go. The prospect of a Trump victory as the standard bearer of the Republic Party heralds a similar political nightmare some two millennia after Caligula. The United States is the major super power of the day. Although winning the presidency would seem to be a long shot for Trump, the fact that so many Republicans are willing to drink poison tea in the primaries is somewhat alarming, especially since the establishment of the GOP is desperately trying to disown him.

The problem is that Trump is a creature of the media. No matter who he manages to offend, from women to Mexicans to Muslim Americans to the Pope to his rivals and to just about anyone who pops out of his run-amuck mouth, there are enough people out there to egg him on (rather than throwing eggs at the podium where he is speaking). It is significant that his most ardent supporters are rabid racists (such as the KKK), think that slavery was not so bad after all, don’t believe there is any climate change to worry about, prefer a literal Adam and Eve some 6,000 years ago to modern science, and other idiocies of the extreme American right. They are having their moment in the sun, primary after primary, thanks in part to the rest of the circus candidates who split the majority of the vote time after time. Fortunately, the American population overall is not that crazy (just too lazy to vote that often); there is still some sanity in New York, New England and California. But the spotlight remains on Trump as he blasphemes his way by taking a wrecking ball to the remnants of the Republican Party. Caligula would be proud of his successor, but then Caligula was insane.

Blogger The Toothless Revolutionary said...As compared to Obama, who bent America over and invited the world to fuck us in the ass.

Oh, I get it! You're talking metaphorically!

Cool.

Don't worry. When it comes to learning the difference between metaphorical vs. real assaults and gropings from politicians, as well as entry sites, I'll make sure to consult my expert friend on the matter: exiledonmainstreet.

Considering Trump was talking metaphorically as well you are just continuing your losing streak of just being/looking stupid. Unless you were talking about bill the rapist.

They are proportionate to his intemperate manner and reckless, not to mention, childish and narcissistic tweets and statements, which suggest the actions he might take or consequences he might cause in the future.

"I can imagine Cook is quite frustrated when heading to the voting booth."

Not at all. I just vote for the third party candidate most consonant with my views. I would be quite frustrated if I felt compelled to vote for any of the major party candidates, all of whom can be counted on to carry out the agenda of the ruling elites. Even Trump, for all his infantile braying and tweeting, will do what the ruling elites want, as Obama did.

Obama is more like Commodus, who broke the Roman treasury with reckless spending and donatives to unions, er, I mean the Praetorian Guards.

I re-read Gibbon's Decline and Fall recently. A key to the empire's success was that ordinary people, including former barbarians, could rise in the system if they embraced Roman culture and ways. A key to its later destruction was when those barbarians decided not to be Roman.Seems like a lesson to be learned in there.